Monday, February 2, 2009

Washington is not the only world capital which finds it difficult to cope with snow and ice. Heavy snow virtually paralyzed some areas of Britain on Monday, with as much as 8" in parts of London. The UK Guardian reports:

The heaviest snowfall for 18 years paralysed swaths of the country yesterday, bringing chaos to roads, railways and airports, closing thousands of schools and businesses, and costing the economy an estimated £1.2bn in lost working hours.

Although the snow had been forecast since last week, much of Britain was overwhelmed, with conditions forcing one in five workers to stay at home, as many as 3,000 schools closed and many non-urgent hospital operations were postponed.

The south-east bore the brunt of the snow, which settled to a depth of 25cm (10in) in Kent and Surrey, and saw all flights cancelled at Heathrow and London City airports, leaving thousands stranded.

London's public transport system buckled under the stress, with all but a handful of bus routes cancelled yesterday morning and 10 of the 11 underground lines either completely or partly suspended.